To begin, I'm a massive fan of the original Shadow Warrior, and not as keen to the reboot series. Shadow Warrior reboot 1 had some issues with bullet spounges and fights that went on a little longer than felt nessessary. Shadow Warrior 2 has brought these issues back, and made them an even bigger deal than ever before by adding a faux RPG system that almost encourages you to pause in the middle of fights to swap the elemental aspects of your most powerful weapons because fighting anything without the proper elemental damage feels like trying to hack down a tree wtih a butter knife. They've also added a loot system. To most, this sounds questionable for a series that once hid a quad barrel rotary shotgun in the very first area... Thankfully, instead of a million boring weapons and maybe 30 cool ones, they've added 80 cool ones. Some of them are cheeky references to films and pop culture, others are just added to fit the theme of an area (which are beautiful by the way). One of my favorite was a Tomohawk equipped along side a knife, called the True Patriot. Perfect if you can just close your eyes and imagine demons wearing red coats. The upgrade system from the previous game also makes a return, but I didn't like it there, and dislike it equally here. The original game had you searching for secret areas in wishing wells, jumping puzzles, and hidden rooms to find upgrades like nuclear ammunition and heat seeking rockets, but the reboots seem to think that earning generic experience and cash from slayed enemies is more exciting. YAWN On the positve side, level design in this one is much more open than the previous. Everything is much more vertical than before. Unfortunately much of the AI can't keep up very well in the more vertical enviornments, but they're fun to hop around reguardless. Overall, if you love Borderlands, you should check this out. If you're looking for a return to Shadow Warrior (1997) look at something like dusk or iron maiden.
